SERMON I.

INTRODUCTORY.

THE DUTY AND PRIVILEGE OF A VERBAL CONFESSION OF A SOUND FAITH.

ROMANS X. 10. With the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Or any of the fruits of faith it may be said, as it OF is here said of one of them, that they are produced unto salvation: not because by our own works we shall be saved; but because the fruits and expression of our faith, whether in words or in deeds, are now the evidence, to ourselves and others, of our being in a state of salvation; as the display of the same fruits and expression of our faith before assembled men and angels, will witness the ground of our acceptance, in that day when the Lord Jesus Christ shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be 'admired in all them that believe. It might with truth be said, therefore: With the heart man believeth

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unto righteousness; and he visiteth the poor and the widow in their affliction, and keepeth himself unspotted from the world, unto salvation: or, again, With the heart man believeth unto righteousness; unto salvation he doeth justly, loveth mercy, and walketh humbly with his God and so, in short, of any of the other external indications of a believing heart, whereby a true faith is known, even as a tree by its fruits, may it be said, that they are produced unto salvation.*

Doubtless, however, it is implied in the text, that there is a peculiar efficacy to this end, in the open confession of a hearty faith; but this efficacy confession derives, perhaps, not so much from its greater excellence as a good work, as from its peculiar relation to the faith of the heart, of which it seems to share something of the mysterious privileges. Confession is, as it were, the elder daughter of a true faith, and inherits a double portion of her parent's loveliness and grace. Indeed, an open verbal confession is the first, the most characteristic, and the most intelligible

* Or, if it seem harsh to some thus to connect works with ultimate salvation, none will deny the same relation between works and some intervening blessings, which are manifestly means and stages to salvation; and if works may be thus rewarded, wherefore not in the same sense by salvation itself. By faith and hospitality, says Clement, in his Epistle to the Corinthians (x. xi. xii.), did Abraham receive a son; and Lot and Rahab were saved from Sodom, and from the fate of Jericho, &c.; and so by faith and confession, by the faith of the heart, and the confession of the lips, do we receive salvation,-in this world, the means, and pledges, and assurances of salvation;-in the world to come, the final consummation of our hopes. Polycarp speaks of some who are gone to heaven in faith and righteousness.

fruit of a true faith; for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. And I lay peculiar emphasis on the word verbal; because, although to confess, in its larger theological acceptation, means more than in words alone can be performed ; yet the tenor of the apostle's argument in the text and context, as well as the marked expression, confess with the mouth, requires us to refer the blessings there promised, if not exclusively, yet especially at least, to an oral declaration of our faith. For he is not speaking of persecution, which might afford occasion to believers to confess Christ by a patient endurance of suffering: he is not speaking of the ordinary regulation of life and conduct, in which case to confess Christ would rather mean to live in habitual and obvious submission to the doctrine which he taught: but he is speaking of the faith of Christians, of their faith in that especial sense in which it cometh by hearing, and is attested by the word of confession; in short, he is speaking of the Christian's creed. The word, saith he, is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is, the word of faith which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved; for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. And he still goes on to shew, that he is speaking of the verbal communication of faith, and of its verbal attestation: whosoever believeth in Christ

[with the heart unto righteousness] shall not be ashamed, and [with the mouth] whoever shall call upon him shall be saved. But whence this calling upon Christ and confession of his name, but from the before mentioned faith? And whence that faith but from the word of faith which we preach? How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?

Here, then, the duty and the privilege of making an open verbal confession of a true faith are strongly set before us. It is our duty because God requires it of us; it is our privilege because it is followed by a promised blessing. It is as much a duty as to receive a disciple in the name of a disciple; and it is as much a privilege for if, in so doing, we receive a disciple's reward, we do also, confessing with the mouth, what with the heart we have believed unto righteousness, receive the reward of faith, even salvation.

And we may consider the confession of our faith not merely as an act of simple obedience, but as a part of our debt of praise, and attended, therefore, in some sort, with the blessings of the hearty use of a doxology; that part of our worship which most gloriously ascends from the whole church in heaven and earth to the ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth. For such is the excellence of the glory of God and the perfection of his nature; such the greatness of his bene

fits to us; that the simplest declaration of them honoureth God, as greatly as by man's ascription of praise he can be honoured. If, then, we would soberly and heartily, however simply, express our sense of these things, nothing which human eloquence can supply were wanting to swell our hearts with gratitude, and excite in them the strongest flame of devotional affections; and if the praises of men are graciously accepted by God; and if the incense of a grateful heart is not displeasing to him; then are we justified in hoping, that, while we recite the articles of our faith, which contain the expressions of his greatness, and recognitions of his mercies, we are performing, not unblessed, an acceptable service.

But much as we have said to enforce the duty of a verbal confession of faith, we would not put it in the place of all or any other duties. We despise the quietism that sets aside active duty for the contemplation of mysteries; and we abhor the madness and impiety that would make the loud and obtrusive confession of an orthodox faith a cloak for violence and iniquity. Still less do we set verbal confession in the place of a hearty faith such a confession is but one of the fruits of a hearty belief; and though the first, most natural, and most distinctive fruit, it cannot set aside the necessity of any single good work; still less can it set aside the necessity of the fountain of all good works. Nay, without the faith of the heart, confession is so far from being a good work, that it is an act of mean and stupid impiety; before God it is hy